


Disbelief

by Choke-a-Bro (Vanya_Deyja)



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Angst, Happy Ending?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-23
Updated: 2019-11-23
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:40:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21532375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vanya_Deyja/pseuds/Choke-a-Bro
Summary: Regis is not convinced Noctis is his biological son.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 113





	Disbelief

**Author's Note:**

> Um... yeah? So I'm posting all the weird shit tonight. Enjoy...?

Regis has always had a secret, niggling, little doubt in the back corner of his mind. He tries not to entertain it but he knows his Aulea had another man she loved. He doesn't blame her, he's always had his own paramours, but when they had trouble conceiving and then with the miscarriages...

Well, there's just so much pressure on a queen to produce an heir...

He wouldn't be angry if Noctis wasn't exactly his. He loves that little boy more than life itself. There's no one left to be angry at anyway. What does it matter? It's not Noctis' fault. He didn't choose anything and Regis is the only father he's ever known so...

Still, some nights it keeps Regis awake.

Certain parts of Regis' bloodline can't be faked or compensated for. The Crystal only accepts Lucius Caelums. That said when Regis is feeling incredibly dark he supposes it doesn't matter because they're going to lose the war anyway. 

Noctis is five now. Small and wide eyed but also mischievous and emotional. Regis loves him but when he refuses to eat his vegetables and is generally sullen at the end of an already miserable day its rough. Parenting is hard enough, parenting alone, parenting royal... it's a nightmare.

"Noctis, you have to eat." Regis prods gently.

"I don't feel good," Noctis maintains, pushing food around his plate. 

Regis wavers. Another illness? Noctis has already had pneumonia this year and he catches every bug that comes through the Citadel. Sometimes they practically have to put him in quarantine he's so fragile. Regis rues another oncoming storm as Noctis scrunches up his nose and--

Noctis sneezes into his hands.

Regis normally wouldn't mind a great deal except the action is accompanied by a violent burst of magic that freezes Noctis' half of the antique table into splinters. The wood groans at the sudden violent contraction, ice spiking out of it, and Regis almost falls out of his chair.

The Glaive and the attendants all rush forward to check both Noctis and Regis are alright. 

Regis is in shock. He can't answer the questions being primed at him. He just gapes. Across the table Noctis blinks, flustered, and looks dazedly between his fingers and the table and back. 

Regis can't help it; he laughs.

A surge runs through him. It's the most intense feeling of relief he's ever felt. He just laughs, beside himself, because you can't fake _that_. Noses, hair color, whatever but you can't fake Lucius Caelum magic. Not even if a laboratory gave you a hundred years. 

Regis doesn't really know what he's doing when he rounds the table and scoops Noctis up into his arms.

Noctis, his Noctis.

Absolutely his.

It's like he's seeing the little boy for the first time. Instantly, like flipping a switch, he can see that resemblance everyone's always harping on about. 

"Feel better?" Regis laughs, holding the boy on his hip.

"That felt _weird_ ," Noctis tells him. "Did I do that?"

"You did that," Regis beams despite himself, feeling crazy. 

"I broke it," Noctis rues, eyeing the table.

"Oh well," Regis shrugs.

"But its old." Noctis frowns, perfect little pout forming.

"Tables, no matter how old, aren't more important than you." Regis doesn't give a piss about the table anymore. Fuck the table. He feels happier than he's felt in literal years. It's like he's become a father again or, rather, at last. All his uncertainty, all his fear, just ebbs away and everything is easier again.

Noctis will prove to him, in the coming months and years, that he's one hundred and fifty percent Lucius Caelum. The prophecy, Carbuncle, a never ending stream of magically based incidents throughout the Citadel... Noctis is perhaps more like the Lucius Caelums or yore than Regis. He's certainly stronger. Regis' magic didn't hit him till he was almost _sixteen_. 

Yet, Regis will always cling to this moment, this relief, because it wakes him up. Knowing, being sure, brings him back into his own life. He's not trudging along anymore. He's gotten his answer. He can forgive and forget. He can know. Maybe tapping out in the first place makes him a horrible person, maybe he should've loved Noctis better or more even when he was uncertain, but... it’s how he feels. It just is. And he feels relief now he knows. 


End file.
